


The Hard Sell

by Amuly



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Related, F/F, Female-Centric, Femslash, First Meetings, Hurt/Comfort, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Post-Canon, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-22 23:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4855133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amuly/pseuds/Amuly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Speculative post-credits scene for the 2018 Captain Marvel movie. Wherein Wanda goes to recruit this newest superhero to the team, and Carol doesn't so much mind the looks of this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hard Sell

Her door buzzer  rang. Carol groaned and shifted. The bag of peas slid off the side of her head and onto her couch arm. Damn whoever it was, she’d just saved the world from a Kree invasion. About five seconds after being blasted with magic rays from that whatever the hell machine and coming into powers herself. She deserved a break. The world could wait on  _her,_  for once. 

The buzzer rang again. What the hell?

“Go away,” Carol shouted. Whoever it was  _probably_ couldn’t hear her thirteen stories down, but whatever. Carol shifted her bag of peas and grunted. Mostly melted. Damn it. 

The door didn’t buzz again as Carol pushed herself up from her couch and limped her way to her fridge. Good. 

Just as Carol was rummaging around from something else frozen–a Lean Cuisine meal probably wouldn’t be too comfortable resting on her head, would it?–there was a knock at her window. 

Wait. At her window? Carol spun around, fists glowing. Whatever she had expected to see–Mar-vell, Yon-Rogg, the Supreme Intelligence itself, a squirrel–it wasn’t a pretty Eastern European girl floating outside her window. 

The girl knocked at the window again and smiled. “Can I come in?” she shouted, then gestured at the window lock. She smiled again. 

Carol stared at the girl in disbelief. Was this a trap? Some sort of honey pot mission? No, wait. Carol took a step closer to the window, getting a better look at the woman. It was that Avenger, wasn’t it? The new one, not the Black Widow. The Scarlet Witch. 

“Who are you?” Carol asked. Her fists were still charged up, just in case.

“Wanda Maximoff!” the young woman called back. “When I’m with the Avengers, they call me the Scarlet Witch! Um, can I come in? I’m not so good at maintaining flight for this long.”

Sure enough, a pointed wobble punctuated Wanda’s plea. Carol sighed. If this was a honey pot mission, someone was definitely well-researched. Only one way to find out. 

“Fine!” Powering down her fists, Carol started to limp her way over to the window. But before she even took two steps, Wanda waved her hands. The window unlocked itself and swung open. I’m through it glided Wanda, stumbling only a little over her feet as she touched down inside the apartment. She smiled at Carol. 

“Thanks.”

Carol crossed her arms and stared down the young woman. She was pretty: brunette, green eyes, smoky eye make-up. Normally exactly Carol’s type, though she seemed a little too young for Carol not to feel like a creep. Carol smiled back coldly. 

“I guess I should offer you a drink?”

“Oh, no, thank you.“ Wanda took a few steps away from the window, looking around Carol’s apartment curiously. “I suppose you think you know why I’m here?”

“Might have something to do with me punching a fleet of alien spaceships out of the sky yesterday?” Carol guessed. She winced as she headed back for her couch. Good old couchy. “Who needs a hulk, right?”

Wanda joined her on the couch. “We saw you: we all did. It happened too fast for us to mobilize, but we watched you. You were…” Wanda smiled, and Carol relaxed, just a little. She had always been susceptible to flattery. “You were brilliant.”

Carol grunted and shifted as carefully as she could. Her t-shirt scraped at the burns on her chest and stomach. Her head still felt like it was going to fall off. “Well, not brilliant enough. I haven’t had these powers long enough to get  _really_ good with them. Give me another month-–after a month of sitting on the couch and licking my wounds, of course-–and I’ll show you something really ‘brilliant.’ Brilliant like the damn sun itself.”

“Maybe I can help?” Wanda extended her hands towards Carol. Her fingertips were glowing, a red plasma swirling around them. Carol leaned back, and Wanda stopped, waiting. 

“Can you?” Carol asked. “Help, I mean. Do you know how to, uh…” Carol nodded at the glowing plasma. “Use… that?”

Wanda smiled reassuringly. “Captain America himself approves my use of healing magic in the field. Though he says we aren’t supposed to call it ‘magic’ around Stark.”

Carol snorted. “Can’t say I’m fond of the term myself.” To her own surprise, Carol found herself leaning in towards Wanda’s touch. “Though I suppose if it’s good enough for Captain America…”

Wanda lifted her hands, and her smile… Carol found herself smiling back, ignoring that little voice that was telling her  _trouble, you always go after the ones that are trouble…_ Carol looked between Wanda’s hands, now positioned on either side of her head. “Do I… do anything?”

Wanda shook her head, expression furrowing into one of intense concentration. “No. Just relax. This should feel good.”

It felt like nothing, at first. Then, just when Carol thought maybe this was a flirtatious joke, Wanda’s eyes glowed, and her expression fell open. A sudden rush of warmth rolled over Carol, like honey poured over the top of her head and sliding down, slowly covering every inch of her. Carol shivered. “ _Oh_.”

“Shhh. It gets better. Wait.”

All her aches and pains melted away. It felt so good that Carol almost closed her eyes, but she found her desire to watch Wanda as she worked overriding that urge. The swollen feeling of her skull shrunk back down to normal size; the charred skin on her stomach and chest stopped burning and scratching with every breath. Even her eyes and throat felt clearer, better, exhaustion washed away in Wanda’s warmth. Carol found she had reached out to rest one hand on Wanda’s bare knee. Wanda didn’t pull away. 

After an indeterminate amount of time Wanda dropped her hands. Her eyes had stopped glowing, fading into their natural, striking green. Carol kept her hand on Wanda’s knee. 

“Better?”

“Much.” Still, Carol was wary. “But what’s the catch?”

Wanda shook her head. “No catch. No force. It’s why they sent me. Just to talk.”

Carol raised an eyebrow at Wanda. "They send the woman who can shape reality with her pinkie finger in… what? An effort to appear  _un_ threatening?”

Wanda actually blushed at that, hair falling over her face as she ducked her head. “I don’t… it takes at least my whole hand. Thumb included.”

Carol bit back a laugh. “That’s what she said.”

Wanda blushed a fiery red at that, though she was stifling a laugh, at least. Carol laughed fully and squeezed at Wanda’s knee. Just, you know. To see. Wanda bit her lip. Carol perked up. Well, hello Avengers. Where should she sign?

“Do the Avengers actually want me, or do they just want to keep tabs on me?”

“Whatever you want,” Wanda replied with apparent honesty. “If you were interested, we can always use the help. If you want to be left alone, well, we do that, too. Just so long as you don’t…” Wanda hesitated. 

“Get in your way?” Carol tried, darkly. 

“More like, so long as you don’t try to take over the world. Or team up with an evil robot who wants to destroy the world.”

Carol snorted. “Well, I don’t need a new job, and I’m kind of liking not being a team player, right now. Ten years in the Air Force and I think maybe I’m ready to be the one calling the shots. No disrespect to the Captain, of course.”

Wanda smiled. Carol liked that smile, a lot. Damn, how old was she? It couldn’t be  _that_  creepy, right? She must be out of college at least.

"My brother  _did_ point out that you outrank the Captain,” Wanda admitted. “Steve said maybe I shouldn’t remind you of that, if it could be helped.”

Carol leaned back against one arm of her couch, bringing her feet up to rest alongside Wanda’s hip as she did. “Too late.”

Wanda bit her lip again. Carol’s stomach flipped. Someone on that Avengers team really knew what they were doing. Or maybe Carol was just that lucky. After the past few weeks, she deserved a little luck. 

“How long they loaning you out for?” Carol asked. Putting her own luck to the test, she ran the side of her foot over Wanda’s elbow. 

Wanda shrugged, wicked little smile making her eyes dance. “As long as I want to be. We are no army. We come and go as we please.”

“Well then would it please you to go and grab a drink with me? I think I need some more convincing, after all. The hard sell.”

Wanda flushed and dropped her head, hair falling in front her face. Carol thought about what it would be like to push that hair back, tucking it over her ears. Thought maybe she had a pretty good chance of finding out. 

“I think it would. Please me.”

Sitting up, Carol leaned over Wanda, checking to make sure she was still smiling, still inviting. She was, damn, she was. "I know a nice place nearby. Food, drinks. Dancing, if you’re into that.”

Wanda’s eyes lit up. “I love dancing.”

Carol winced. “I’ve got two left feet myself, but I wouldn’t mind you trying to teach me.”

Wanda nodded eagerly, neck craning up toward Carol. "At the worst, we could always just fly together.” Carol’s stomach swooped at the thought. Someone like her, someone as  _powerful_  as her, someone who could fly with her. Oh. Wow. “But I’d love to. Teach you.”

Just as Carol was leaning down to close the distance between them, a barely-noticeable draft fluttered at the nape of her neck. Carol wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Suddenly, through, Wanda’s head shot up and she glanced around. Carol frowned. Wanda pushed Carol off of her and she swung her feet to the floor, head swinging around. 

“What-?

"We will discuss this over dinner, then!” Wanda announced, a little too loudly. Carol shot her a look. Wanda shook her head. “I’ll wait outside while you get your coat!"

Wanda headed out, through the front door this time, and Carol was left wondering what she’d done wrong. Maybe Wanda was too young for her. Maybe Carol was being a little bit of a creeper. 

"You touch my sister, I do to you what the blue aliens did not.”

Carol spun around, room whirring with a sudden gust of air. Twins. Wanda was a twin, and her brother… Carol dashed over the window just in time to see Wanda swearing at a white-haired young man, shoving at his shoulders and gesticulating wildly.

Carol grinned. Well: if she got the brother that scared, then maybe she did have a chance. Carol whistled as she tossed on better fitting shirt and jeans and a nicer pair of shoes. Maybe this Avengers Initiative was worth a look.  


End file.
